Graphene has generated enormous interest in the research community because of its potential for use in electronic devices and other applications.
The desire for large-scale production of this material has motivated a number of recent investigations of methods to grow large-area single- (or few-) layer graphene by methods that include ultrahigh vacuum annealing of single crystal SiC, and other chemical vapor deposition methods. Existing methods, however, display substantial variation in the graphene's properties that are unacceptable for many applications—uniform thickness of graphene is a critical issue, but reports to date show only limited success in controlling this parameter. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for large-area single-layer graphene sheets and for related methods of producing such sheets.